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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27388834">Hesitantly Mended Bridges</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenRaven/pseuds/GoldenRaven'>GoldenRaven</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Diverted Courses [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Family, Gen, Giovanni has the powers from the Viridian Forest, I don't care how much canon tries to sweep that under the rug, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Time Travel Fix-It, silver has no baggage from nearly watching gio burn to death thanks for asking, silver's mom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:34:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27388834</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenRaven/pseuds/GoldenRaven</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There’d been a fight.<br/>And a flash.<br/>And then Silver had been falling through the air, to land hard on the forest floor.<br/>The plaque outside the gym says Giovanni is the one running it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Diverted Courses [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2000818</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hesitantly Mended Bridges</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Landing on the forest floor hurt.</p><p>A lot.</p><p>But nothing’s broken, so Silver has slightly bigger things to be worrying about than whether or not he’s going to be covered in bruises tomorrow.</p><p>Mainly where he is.</p><p>This isn’t Ilex.</p><p>That’s where, by any logical account, he should be. He’d been there with Crys, looking into some poachers who had turned out to not be Team Rocket.</p><p>He’s not sure if he’s happy about that or not. He needs a lead.</p><p>But either way, they’d been after Celebi.</p><p>There’d been a fight.</p><p>And a flash.</p><p>And then Silver had been falling through the air.</p><p>Going off the pokemon he’s seen so far he might be near Viridian.</p><p>But Celebi has control over time, so his knowledge of where things are in his time might not be very helpful if he’s been thrown too far back, which he’s sure he must have been.</p><p>His luck isn’t good enough for him to have only been deposited in a different forest.</p><p>He’s going to stick to his theory that he’s in Viridian for now though. If he finds the river he’ll be able to get to town, and then he supposes he can set out for Ilex.</p><p>He’s not guaranteed to get back to his own time that way, but he doesn’t know how else he’d manage it.</p><p>He finds the river within an hour and follows it towards the town.</p><p>He doesn’t get attacked by anything.</p><p>Which is good.</p><p>He’s tired. So is his team. Maybe he’ll break into a hotel just to sleep on a mattress for the night.</p><p>It’s only when he stumbles across the gym that he hesitates in his plan.</p><p>The plaque outside it says that Giovanni is the one running it, which gives Silver a rough idea of when he might have wound up, which is good.</p><p>But with that kernel of information comes a nagging curiosity to go in.</p><p>After all, it’s not like he got to have much of a conversation with his father on the airship.</p><p>And what are the chances of Giovanni recognizing him, really?</p><p>He shouldn’t.</p><p>The less he interacts with anyone the better, he’s pretty sure.</p><p>He pushes open the door, and steps into a well-decorated lobby.</p><p>Shades of brown and green cover the room, and slowly, Silver ventures further in.</p><p>Maybe no one’s here, and he can poke around and leave, his curiosity sated.</p><p>There’s a shelf along one wall, covered in a mix of books, framed documents, and trophies.</p><p>Despite himself, the corner of Silver’s mouth twitches.</p><p>Though his expression quickly morphs to panic when he hears footsteps from behind the doors leading to the battlefield, and he turns in time to see a much younger Giovanni pushing the double doors open.</p><p>Silver’s surprised at how jarring it is to see him again; last time he’d been covered in burns, the air smelling of charred flesh, and Silver hadn’t actually expected him to live.</p><p>Right now he just looks… normal.</p><p>Excuses are quick to fill Silver’s mind, though it’s quickly clear that none of them will be very useful.</p><p>He’d sort of been hoping that maybe he doesn’t exist yet, and won’t have to worry about being recognized, but the look of confusion crossing his father’s face is enough to tell him he hadn’t been that lucky.</p><p>Sneasel materializing next to him and bounding over to Giovanni probably doesn’t help things.</p><p>She jumps onto his shoulder, which he doesn’t seem very surprised by, even though Silver’s eyes widen with shock because she’s never that friendly with anyone.</p><p>Giovanni reaches up, scratching behind her ear in an action that seems to be more out of habit than anything, and his eyes drift back to Silver, who is still very confused.</p><p>“Silver?”</p><p>“Yeah.” Which probably isn’t very reassuring, given the current state of his… everything. But bits of the truth can’t hurt. He hopes. He at least can’t possibly cause Giovanni to do anything worse than he’s going to on his own anyway, right? “There was a fight in Ilex, and I guess Celebi wasn’t very happy about it, and I ended up in the forest.” And then, because at the moment it seems sort of dumb to not at least ask, “I need help getting back to Ilex.”</p><p>Giovanni stays quiet for a few seconds, which Silver thinks is fair; he’s just dropped a lot on him.</p><p>“You need to get to Ilex?” he repeats finally.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“We can do that.” He lowers his arm and tucks his hands into his pockets. “I assume you don’t mind waiting a few days? There’s a tournament in two weeks, and I'm booked with last-minute challengers for the next two days. Then we can go.”</p><p>Now it’s Silver’s turn to be stunned into silence.</p><p>He hadn’t been expecting him to agree at all, let alone offer to outright take him to Ilex. Silver had been hoping for a map. <em>Maybe</em> cash for a train or bus ticket if those are going to Johto at this point (which they might not be).</p><p>But he nods slowly, his gaze drifting to Sneasel, who’s still stubbornly clinging to Giovanni’s shoulder with no intent of letting go.</p><p>Giovanni studies Silver for another few seconds, before stepping back.</p><p>“I need to finish up a few things, and then we can go home for the night. You could run out for something to eat if you wanted.”</p><p>“I’ll wait.” Crys had bullied him into eating two energy bars before they’d gone into the forest, so he’s not hungry, and even if he was, he doesn’t have money, and while he is making an assumption about being fed tonight, it seems likely going off Giovanni’s current demeanor.</p><p>Though that might not count for very much.</p><p>Giovanni’s head tilts just a bit, but he nods and pushes the doors to the battlefield back open, and after a moment of debate, Silver follows him through the room to an office.</p><p>There are bookshelves along one wall, and as Giovanni settles behind the desk, Silver grabs a volume at random and sinks onto the couch in the middle of the room.</p><p>He’s sort of surprised to find the occasional patch of small, neat, handwriting in the margins of the book; either detailing or correcting the text, and Silver stays quiet as he reads through, trying to commit as much of Giovanni’s notes to memory as possible.</p><p>He’s not sure when he’d fallen asleep, but suddenly he’s waking up to Giovanni shaking him gently, and it takes all of his self-control to not snap his fingers closed around his wrist. If he hasn’t worried him yet, that seems very likely to do so.</p><p>“Time to go?” he asks, still somewhat sleepy.</p><p>“Yes, come on.”</p><p>He doesn’t protest when Giovanni helps him up, even if it’s not necessary, and follows him out to the car, Sneasel at his heels.</p><p>He tries not to act surprised when they reach the house, but he still ends up rubbing at his eyes and forcing down a deep breath.</p><p>Of all the ways he could have ended up seeing “home” this is certainly not what he’d had in mind.</p><p>Silver climbs out of the car as the garage door closes, and almost walks into Giovanni when he stops in the doorway.</p><p>“Wait out here for a moment,” he says.</p><p>“O-okay,” Silver manages, thrown off after a mostly silent car ride.</p><p>Giovanni leaves him in the hall and disappears through a door at the far end.</p><p>Silver leans against the wall, catching Sneasel when she jumps into his arms.</p><p>Where’s he going? Come to think of it, where’s the Silver from this time? Giovanni seems too calm for him to have been kidnapped already.</p><p>Sneasel’s ears twitch, and a second later, Silver hears Giovanni’s voice, along with a confused sounding woman’s, which makes him freeze as he realizes just how little he’d thought through going into the gym.</p><p>He’s so stupid. He should have just gone straight to Ilex. He’s going to screw something up and make everyone suspicious, and that could make everything in the future worse.</p><p>But before he can convince himself to run out the door and vanish into the forest, another door opens, and Giovanni and a woman with hair the same shade of red as Silver’s step out into the hall.</p><p>She freezes up when her eyes land on Silver, and he tightens his grip on Sneasel, who squirms in protest.</p><p>“Hi Silver,” she says after a moment, leaning against the door frame.</p><p>“Hi.” He doesn’t tack on the word “mom”, which he hopes isn’t noticed but he can’t afford to be wrong and tip either of them off to something.</p><p>There’s a few seconds of not-completely-awkward silence, before Giovanni clears his throat, and says, “As I was saying, we’ll head to Ilex in a few days.”</p><p>He’s looking at the woman, who nods, still studying Silver with an expression Silver isn’t sure he has a label for.</p><p>“Of course. That… sounds good.”</p>
<hr/><p>Giovanni had told Silver to pick a guestroom, with a vague gesture towards the stairs.</p><p>So Silver had gone upstairs and picked the first bedroom that didn’t look used because he’s pretty sure he should act like he knows his way around the house.</p><p>And that’s where he’s staying, huddled up on the bed, making himself take deep, still somewhat shaky, breaths as he tries to think.</p><p>He shouldn’t have done any of this. Should have taken off the minute he realized he wasn’t alone in the gym. Potentially screwing something up in the future isn’t worth him getting to spend a few days with his parents.</p><p>Granted, he doubts he could make things worse. He can’t possibly cause Team Rocket to not disband in the future. So long as he doesn’t say anything about what’s going to happen everything should be fine in that respect.</p><p>But what if Ho-oh shows up while he’s here? It seems unlikely, but he’s learned by now that he can’t trust his luck.</p><p>But he’d caught a glimpse of baby-him on his way to this room, and he thinks he probably has at least a few months.</p><p>He doesn’t want to think about the possibility of stopping it. He’d be leaving Green by herself, or worse, dooming some other child to being taken as a replacement.</p><p>And speaking of ways Team Rocket could be made worse: if he does tell Giovanni what’s coming there’s nothing saying that won’t just end in the organization being formed earlier, and what if that’s all the added foothold it needs to not go away?</p><p>He drops back on the bed with a sigh. He’s just going to have to hope he gets through the next few days without anything happening to make them think something’s wrong.</p>
<hr/><p>Hunger pulls him out of the room after a while, and he pads down the stairs, taking care not to make any noise. According to the clock in the hall, it’s still early enough that no one other than little-him is that likely to be asleep, but he at least might be able to get in and out of the kitchen without being noticed.</p><p>That idea doesn’t work.</p><p>His mother is sitting at the table, sorting through a small stack of paperwork.</p><p>Silver freezes in the doorway. Her back is to him, and she hasn’t noticed him yet, he could just go back up. Probably should.</p><p>Before he can make up his mind, she glances up and spots his reflection in the window.</p><p>There are a few seconds of quiet, before she says, “You slept through dinner. There’s a plate in the fridge for you.”</p><p>Which is such a blatantly normal sentence that Silver needs a few seconds to fully process it before he makes himself nod.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>If she thinks there’s something strange about the amount of time it takes him to figure out the microwave, or where forks are, she doesn’t say anything, and when the food is heated up, Silver’s left with another dilemma.</p><p>Because what he wants to do is take the plate back up stairs, and continue limiting the number of chances he has to let something slip. But that will probably also be suspicious, so he makes himself sit at the table, positioning himself so he’s as far from her as he can get, hoping that it just looks like he’s trying not to get anything on the papers.</p><p>Silver does his best to keep his mouth full of food so she can’t ask questions. It’s not hard; it’s been a long day, and now that there’s food in front of him, it’s hard to ignore how hungry he’d been.</p><p>It’s also been a while since he’s had a hot meal. No more stolen wallets means his opportunities for food are more limited, not that they’d been that good before either.</p><p>“Giovanni told me you were in a fight in Ilex. How did that happen?” she asks after a while, making Silver jump.</p><p>Trying to hide his reaction by adjusting his position, he says, “A friend of mine does capture commissions. I was helping her in the forest, and we ended up with… competition. They wouldn’t drop it, and I guess Celebi got upset.” None of that is technically wrong, at least.</p><p>She nods, and Silver doesn’t like the worried look she’s giving him, and he finishes the rest of his food as quickly as he can, before standing up, cleaning the plate at the sink, and forcing out, “Goodnight,” as he heads back out of the room.</p><p>When he gets back to his room, he drops onto the bed, trying not to think. He needs to sleep. He’s calmer when he’s well-rested, and the jumpier he is the worse this is going to be.</p>
<hr/><p>Silver sleeps in the next morning.</p><p>He hadn’t meant to, but he so rarely gets to sleep in an actual bed that he supposes it makes sense his body would try to make up for lost time when he has the chance.</p><p>It does mean that Giovanni and baby-Silver are gone when he makes himself leave the guest room.</p><p>Silver isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or not.</p><p>His mother is in the kitchen again, on the phone with someone, and it takes him a few seconds to realize that she’s calling out of work.</p><p>Which is bad.</p><p>He’d been toying with the idea of slipping out while everyone was gone today, but that apparently won’t be happening.</p><p>Sneasel jumps onto the table next to her as she hangs up, and is rewarded with a scratch behind her ears.</p><p>Her being friendly is one of the weirdest things about all of this.</p><p>“I thought we could go get you some clean clothes today since it doesn’t seem like you had any packed.”</p><p>“That sounds good.” He’s not sure what else he can say.</p><p>She smiles and moves towards the counter.</p><p>“Let’s eat, then we’ll go.”</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
<br/>
Breakfast and the drive into town were long enough for Silver to realize that there was more to this outing than just getting him new clothes.</p><p>Not the most surprising thing, but still; there’d been a part of him that had wanted to let his guard down for a minute.</p><p>But, as usual, that’s asking for too much.</p><p>She’s being subtle, but her eyes are lingering on him too often, and when Silver jumps at sirens in the city, he doesn’t miss the glint of worry in her eyes.</p><p>He doesn’t blame her.</p><p>He knows he’s a mess.</p><p>Really, he should be glad she’s this worried; it’d probably be worse if he’d shown up like this, and neither she nor Giovanni seemed concerned. It’s just that he knows where that worry can lead.</p><p>But he goes along with her suggestions, and it is nice to be in clean clothes once he changes in the bathroom of the store.</p><p>“Are your hands okay?” she asks as they leave.</p><p>“Yeah, why?”</p><p>“The gloves, you haven’t taken them off. I was just wondering.”</p><p>“It’s just a habit. They’re helpful with… training.” Not a lie. And his hands get burned or cut a lot less than Gold’s (though that may say more about Gold than anything else).</p><p>“I see.”</p><p>She slips an arm around his shoulders, and Silver hates the fact that he tenses up.</p><p>He wants to be able to let himself enjoy this.</p><p>Even if he does manage to find Giovanni in his own time, he is beginning to think that she’s not… around anymore by then. It would make Giovanni’s desperation to find him make more sense, and… she just seems too nice to have anything to do with Team Rocket.</p><p>This is probably all he’s going to get, and he’s too worried to actually enjoy it. Figures.</p>
<hr/><p>The rest of the day is spent at the house. Silver curls up on the couch in the living room with another book, but he’s not reading. Instead, he’s trying to focus on all the little things about the house; the ticking of a grandfather clock in the hallway, the ring-shaped stain on the end table from a glass, the floorboards he hears creaking as his mother walks around upstairs, claw marks that he’s sure are from Sneasel in the side of the shelf where he’d gotten the book (they’d been tiny; she must have been fairly recently hatched when she left them), and he tries not to think about the fact that in another life he could have had all of this memorized by now, rather than be sitting here struggling to commit some part of it to memory before he loses it again.</p><p>He doesn’t know how to help with dinner, so he doesn’t offer, but he does move into the kitchen.</p><p>At least until the smell of food reminds him of something.</p><p>“I need to feed my team.”</p><p>His voice is more stilted than he’d meant, but his usual methods probably aren’t going to fly here. Weavile and Murkrow (and Ursaring if he had her right now) can just be let loose and left to their own devices, and provided there’s a big enough body of water nearby, so can Gyarados, Feraligator, and Kingdra (his team tends to eat better than he does). And Rhyperior could if Silver wasn’t worried about how Blue would react. But that’s honestly probably illegal, and also more of a hassle than he wants to deal with right now. He doesn’t know the forest that well.</p><p>But Giovanni’s a gym leader. There has to be pokemon food somewhere.</p><p>And sure enough, his mother nods, not even looking up from the stove.</p><p>“There’s a shed in the backyard. If you can get through the pharmacy’s worth of supplements, there’s some regular food in the back. I’ll feed Sneasel if you leave her in here.”</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>He slips out before she can think too much about why he hadn’t already known that, and out the corner of his eye, sees Sneasel excepting an offered egg.</p><p>“Shed” is the wrong word for the small building. Silver’s slept in smaller, and less-well-built places plenty of times.</p><p>But he pulls the door open and flicks a light switch as he breathes in the vaguely-grassy smell of the feed closest to the door.</p><p>Silver’s not sure what Giovanni has right now, but hopefully, there’s something carnivorous or he’s going to be listening to a lot of complaints for the next two days.</p><p>He pads into the building, taking in the contents of the shelves. Electrolytes and various supplements cover one. The other has first aid equipment, though it’s not as stocked as he’d have expected.</p><p>Towards the back, he finds a bin, and when he opens it, it doesn’t smell like grass, so it’s going to have to do. He could go read the ingredients on the unopened bags along the wall, but he doesn’t know which would go to this.</p><p>And it’s only for two days. They’ve eaten worse.</p><p>He finds a stack of bowls, and fills five, before carrying them out and releasing his team.</p><p>Whatever the food is, it’s apparently acceptable. Only Murkrow complains, but he can go harass caterpie later if he wants.</p><p>Silver’s looking over Feraligator, checking for injuries from Ilex, when the door to the house opens and closes.</p><p>He’s distracted and doesn’t think to look up until he sees Giovanni stopped next to Gyarados.</p><p>Which on its own isn’t bad. Gyarados got over his “attack everyone except Silver” phase a year ago, but there’s something very familiar about the way Giovanni has his hand on the pokemon’s head, and a calm but focused expression on his face.</p><p>As in, Silver’s seen Lance do that. Typically when he’s trying to dig up a memory or information.</p><p>He hadn’t thought of it before, but he supposes Giovanni would be about twenty years older than Lance. And it certainly explains why Lance hates him so much. And the lack of medical supplies.</p><p>“Did you just get back?” Silver asks quickly, hoping to break his concentration.</p><p>It seems to work, Giovanni turns towards him, his hands slipping into his pockets as he nods. “A few minutes ago. Did you find everything you needed for them?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Giovanni walks towards him, and Silver lets himself relax a bit because no one else has quite as damning memories.</p><p>Except for Sneasel.</p><p>Who’d been climbing on Giovanni yesterday.</p><p>A childhood of Green squawking indignantly every time he repeated some swear picked up from Karen keeps his mouth shut, but he supposes any chances of keeping the future a secret are now thoroughly dashed.</p><p>But if Giovanni had seen something in Gyarados’s thoughts, he doesn’t say anything, instead stopping next to Silver as he says, “An impressive team. Where’s the rhyperior from?”</p><p>“I’m just borrowing him from a friend.” A vague answer, but not a lie. He doesn’t want to think about Ursaring and what she’s doing right now.</p><p>Giovanni raises an eyebrow but nods again. Silver can’t read his expression.</p><p>He supposes he should just take the compliment until he actually has cause to stress.</p>
<hr/><p>He gets a reason later that night.</p><p>After dinner, he tucks himself away in his room again, exhaustion and stress keeping him from any attempts at socializing more, and he’s planning on just going to sleep when he hears voices down the hall.</p><p>Which is already enough to keep him alert, because he’s not used to sleeping around other people, but not necessarily concerning.</p><p>Then he hears someone say his name.</p><p>And now he’s definitely not going to sleep.</p><p>Silently, he slips out of the room, padding down the hall until he reaches the door that his mother and Giovanni are behind, where he kneels down, his ear pressed to the wall.</p><p>“You really didn’t figure anything out from his pokemon?”</p><p>“Grace, it doesn’t work like that. I don’t have control over what they show me.”</p><p>“But something happens to him,” Grace counters, in a tone that makes Silver’s chest hurt. “Something happens, and he hasn’t said anything. I don’t think he even remembered the house when you brought him here. And you didn’t see him in town; he was so jumpy. Something’s wrong.”</p><p>Giovanni stays quiet, and Silver curls his fingers into fists.</p><p>He hadn’t been careful enough.</p><p>Again, he supposes he should be happy that they care enough to notice, but this is bad.</p><p>He should go.</p><p>Now.</p><p>With a deep breath, he pulls himself up, and heads for his room, intending to grab his stuff, and once he has his pack, pads down the stairs.</p><p>He only gets halfway.</p><p>“Silver.”</p><p>He freezes, his hand tight on the rail.</p><p>Behind him, he can hear Giovanni walking down the stairs, and Silver flinches when he sets a hand on his shoulder, but as soon as he reacts, the hand is gone.</p><p>Silver keeps his gaze on his hand on the rail as Giovanni says, “Can we sit down and talk, please?”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>He follows Giovanni the rest of the way down the stairs, and into the living room.</p><p>Silver takes the seat by the door without really thinking about it.</p><p>“So, you heard-”</p><p>“Yes.” Silver keeps staring at his hands. “I’m really sorry, but I can’t tell you anything.” And he is sorry. At this point, Giovanni hasn’t done anything, and Silver’s punishing everyone for future actions, but he doesn’t see a way around it. And he can’t save himself and leave the other five on their own.</p><p>“Why not? Silver, you have a chance to change things right now. Tell me what it is and I can stop it.”</p><p>There’s a note of desperation to his tone, and Silver has to fight a childish urge to clamp his hands over his ears just to block him out.</p><p>“If I stop it someone else will get hurt. Or a lot of people will. I don’t know, it just… it can’t change.” He’s not sure his voice is actually audible, but then he feels the couch cushion sink next to him, and a hand settles on his knee.</p><p>Giovanni doesn’t say anything, and after a few seconds, Silver lets himself lean into his side.</p><p>He’s warm. The arm that slips around Silver’s shoulders is firm.</p><p>He tries not to think about burns and smoke, and months spent dreading the idea of going back to the hideout just to find a corpse.</p><p>“You don’t have to tell me. But I would appreciate it if you would think about it.”</p>
<hr/><p>Silver wakes up on the couch, tucked under a blanket. His backpack had evidently been taken somewhere else, hopefully just upstairs.</p><p>He can hear Giovanni and Grace talking in the kitchen.</p><p>With a slow exhale, he lets his eyes close, and settles back onto the couch. Chances are he’ll be on his own today, he can sleep in a bit.</p><p>He doesn’t quite get back to sleep, before he feels small hands on his arm, and opens his eyes, confused.</p><p>The face staring back at him is both familiar and not, and after a moment, he sits up slowly, studying little-Silver with a slightly apprehensive expression.</p><p>The toddler has a familiar-looking handkerchief tucked around his neck, and a more worn out one clenched in his fist.</p><p>Silver’s hands dart to his jacket pockets, and sure enough, they’re empty.</p><p>He snorts and holds a hand out.</p><p>“Can I have that back, please?”</p><p>“Mm-hmm.”</p><p>The cloth gets set in his hand, and he watches as he wanders back out of the room.</p><p>Giovanni is still in the kitchen when Silver finally makes himself get up for real, leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee.</p><p>“Why don’t you come with to the gym today?” he says when Silver comes in.</p><p>“Is that a good idea?”</p><p>“You can stay in my office if you’re worried. But there’s no reason for anyone to question things.”</p><p>Silver nods slowly, before making himself take a deep breath. “That sounds good then.”</p><p>Giovanni nods, and Silver sinks quietly into one of the chairs at the table.</p><p>He doesn’t feel better after last night.</p><p>He doesn’t feel worse either, but he does now feel guilty in addition to his earlier worries.</p><p>Because now they know that something is wrong, that something’s going to happen.</p><p>He’s choosing to ignore the possibility of that fact turning into paranoia that makes Team Rocket worse. He’s doing everything he can to convince himself that the organization is too complicated for him to unintentionally make it worse.</p><p>Giovanni sets a plate of food in front of Silver, pulling him from his thoughts, and after a mumbled, “Thank you”, he starts eating.</p><p>He’s going to miss consistent meals.</p><p>The bed is almost too soft, and being indoors constantly feels strange, but consistent food is an appreciated luxury that he hasn’t gotten before.</p><p>(Well, technically he’s had all of this before, obviously; it’s right in front of him, and the voice in his head pointing that out, and the one saying he should be glad Giovanni and Grace are as worried about his current condition as they are sounds an awful lot like Green, and much like her, isn’t easy to ignore, but the more he listens to it the more he wants to explain what’s going to happen, but-)</p><p>He shakes his head, trying to make it look like he’s getting his bangs out of his face as he tries to clear his thoughts.</p><p>They’re going to Ilex tomorrow. He’ll figure out how to get back to his time from there, and everything will play out the way it’s supposed to.</p>
<hr/><p>“What’s all the paperwork?”</p><p>Giovanni glances up from his desk, looking startled at the question, and Silver stays quiet as he waits for an answer that he probably should already know, but at this point, it seems like an open secret that he doesn’t know anything about his family or how things work in it, so where’s the harm?</p><p>“The League requires a summary of all challengers. Mainly what their teams are.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Mostly statistics; how many trainers are out for badges, and how many stick with it through the full challenge. Plus, it’s good to have the records if someone wins the championship. And if someone were to show up at each gym with different but highly trained teams, it can indicate something illegitimate going on in the background.” At Silver’s confused expression, he adds, “Occasionally you get doting parents who are willing to buy trained pokemon for their child’s journey, and they’ll usually end up shuffling through a roster until they find what works, or just to have an advantage somewhere. It’s not banned, per se, but it doesn't look good for the League if someone wins a tournament with pokemon they didn’t train themself. You’d want to step in before they got that far.”</p><p>There’s an obvious note of disdain in his voice, which Silver finds himself appreciating.</p><p>He nods, and they drop back into silence. Whatever trainer Giovanni’s waiting on isn’t coming until late in the afternoon, so Silver’s more or less free to do what he wants until then, which has resulted in him staying on the couch reading.</p><p>Technically, all the books are a decade out of use for him, but they do offer more of a technical insight to things than he’s gotten from anywhere else, so most of it is still new information, or at least explains why he’d been taught to do things a certain way.</p><p>Sneasel had let herself out a few minutes after they’d gotten here, and had decided to keep herself occupied by climbing on the back of Giovanni’s chair while he works. If she’s bothering him, he hasn’t said anything.</p><p>Silver still isn’t sure it’s a good idea, but from what he’s heard last night, Giovanni can’t find anything out from her unless she’s already thinking about it, and nothing here seems likely to drag up memories of anything.</p><p>There’s a small part of him that wants to tell her to let him know about just enough to do something about all of it, so it won’t <em>really</em> be Silver’s fault if something goes wrong, but he’s trying not to pay too much attention to it.</p><p>Silver jumps at the sound of the front door opening, and Giovanni glances at his watch, before standing up and slipping out the door to the battlefield.</p><p>Silver grabs Sneasel before she can follow him, and stops the door from shutting all the way, curiosity overriding common sense again.</p><p>He nudges Sneasel over towards the couch, and leans towards the gap in the door just in time to hear, “Can I help you, Pryce?”</p><p>Silver’s grip tightens on the doorknob, and he forces down a deep breath.</p><p>“These files need to get to Samuel, but he’s out of his lab for a few days. I don’t have another day to drop them off, and was wondering if I could leave them with you.”</p><p>“That’s fine.”</p><p>Silver’s hyperventilating at this point, but he’s also reminding himself that that is a perfectly reasonable excuse. A little stupid, because Oak probably has assistants that the papers could be left with, but still; not necessarily malicious.</p><p>Then Pryce asks, “How’s Silver doing?”, and Silver doesn’t hear Giovanni’s answer, because he’s darting into the bathroom attached to the office, doing his best to not audibly retch into the sink.</p><p>He’s not sure how long he stays clinging to the countertop before he hears the office door get pushed open, and footsteps coming towards him.</p><p>His hair gets pulled back from his face, and a warm hand rubs at his back as he loses the fight with his stomach, and his breakfast comes up.</p><p>His knees are shaking, and he sags against the counter gasping for air.</p><p>Vaguely, he registers the sink being turned on, and Giovanni offering a damp towel.</p><p>For a few seconds, the hand holding it is covered in burns, but Silver squeezes his eyes shut, forces down a deep breath, and when he opens them, it’s normal.</p><p>He doesn’t say anything, just takes the towel and wipes at his mouth as he makes himself stand back up.</p><p>He’s still shaking, but it’s not as hard to stay upright as he’d been expecting.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Giovanni asks, studying him with a worried expression that only kind of hurts.</p><p>“Breakfast didn’t sit well, I guess.” It is a blatant lie, but he doesn’t have anything else to offer up as an excuse.</p><p>Giovanni sets a hand on his shoulder. “Silver, I-”</p><p>“I’ll tell you when we get to Ilex.” The offer slips out before he thinks to stop it.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I’ll tell you… some of it when we get to Ilex. It’s not that I don’t believe you’ll take me there, I just-” he takes a deep breath “-I need time to think.” He shouldn’t be promising this, but at this point, when he does get kidnapped, it’ll be pretty reasonable to look to the man whose voice had left him retching into the sink.</p><p>And if Pryce is asking questions about him, then Ho-oh will be showing up soon. The four older kids might already be in the base at this point.</p><p>He is not abandoning them, which means Giovanni needs to be given specific information, and Silver needs time to work out what that is.</p><p>Giovanni’s grip on his shoulder tightens for a moment before he lets him go.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ilex is a two-day drive from Viridian.</p><p>Which is more time than Silver’s ever spent in a car in his life, but hiking there will take longer, so he doesn’t protest the next morning as he sits on the hood of a car that he does not want to know the price of, half-listening as Giovanni and Grace talk before they leave.</p><p>To his knowledge, Giovanni hasn’t told her about his breakdown at the gym. Which is good, because he’s not completely convinced she’d have let him leave at all if she knew, she’s giving him enough worried looks as it is.</p><p>Which is understandable.</p><p>He knows he looks as bad as he feels right now.</p><p>He’s not having second thoughts about his promise to tell Giovanni what happens, but he is worried about what will happen to him when he does.</p><p>Assuming he’s right, and Celebi does take him back to his time, will he wake up in the house, oblivious to everything that had happened the first time around? Or will he remember? What if nothing changes? Or Team Rocket still exists, only they won? Where would that put him? What if-</p><p>“Silver, it’s time to go.”</p><p>He jumps and looks up at Giovanni’s voice, nodding as he slides off the car.</p><p>Grace slips an arm around his shoulders in a loose hug that he tries to return.</p><p>“I suppose I’ll see you later,” she says when she lets him go. She’s smiling, and Silver makes himself do the same, even though he’s pretty sure she’s wrong. “I love you,” she adds, with a quick kiss against his forehead that reminds him of Green, and then she heads back into the house.</p><p>Silver makes himself get into the car before his knees give out on him again.</p>
<hr/><p>The drive isn’t unpleasant, which sort of surprises Silver. He’d been expecting tension, with his offer of information now hanging between them, but he’s instead met with an easy silence as he stares out the window, trying not to think because if he thinks too much about what changing things might mean, he’s going to panic.</p><p>He spends the first hour or so of the drive piecing together what Green’s impression of the past few days would have been. There’s a part of him that’s always found their familial situations a tad ironic because she would have eaten up the drama of technically being the heir to a crime syndicate with a spoon, and he’d always been desperate for a shred of normalcy, which, no matter how much she denies it, he knows she’s had trouble adjusting to since going home. He’s not sure what she’d be doing in this situation. Possibly, she’d have explained everything immediately, or burst out at the gym with some elaborate lie designed to trip Pryce into a confession.</p><p>He’s also not sure what she’d make of this nicer version of Giovanni.</p><p>She probably wouldn’t have trusted that he’s as different as he seems as quickly as Silver had, but if that’s a mistake, Silver’s too deep in it now to do anything.</p><p>The sound of his name pulls him from his thoughts, and he looks over at Giovanni.</p><p>“What did you say?”</p><p>“I said we could stop in New Bark Town for lunch, and then probably spend the night in Violet.”</p><p>“Oh. Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll eat whatever.”</p><p>“Is something wrong?”</p><p><br/>
“No.” Mentioning that he’s worried about what happens after Ilex isn’t going to accomplish anything other than make it seem like he’s having second thoughts, so he’s not going to bother.</p><p>Giovanni glances at him, but nods.</p><p>Silver’s appetite at lunch seems to get rid of any remaining worries, though really it’s just that if Silver let anxiety keep him from eating he’d have starved to death years ago.</p><p>But the food is good, and having something in his stomach calms him down a bit.</p><p>After lunch, they’re back on the road, and Silver tries to keep a conversation going if only to keep his thoughts quiet. He doesn’t think he does a particularly good job of it, but Giovanni at least goes along with it.</p><p>“How did you end up with the Viridian Gym?” Silver asks as they reach Violet, and he can see a glint of surprise in Giovanni’s eyes.</p><p>“My predecessor left it to me when she retired. She thought I was a good fit for the role, and I’ve yet to have a reason to leave.”</p><p>“Have you ever thought about moving up to the Elite Four?” There’s no real reason for the question, but he’s curious. Giovanni’s certainly capable of taking the position.</p><p>“I’ve considered it. But I enjoy teaching, and the further up in the League you go the less opportunity for that you have without taking on an apprentice of some sort. There’s also more travel involved, so for now, at least, it’s not practical.”</p><p>Silver nods, and he supposes he also has an answer for why he’d never done so in the future either.</p>
<hr/><p>Silver’s stayed in a few hotels, but most had been run-down, and he’d either broken in or stolen cash for an overnight stay when the weather had been bad enough to force him indoors.</p><p>The one Giovanni leads him to reminds him more of the one Green had conned the two of them into before they’d initially split up, with tearful eyes and pouting lips and a sob-story Silver can’t remember the details of fed to an old lady in the lobby who’d gotten them a room, and promised to help them in the morning.</p><p>They’d disappeared before she could do anything, but it had been hot food, a bath, and a bed. Green’s way of making up for Silver still not liking the plan.</p><p>Silver drops quietly onto one of the beds in the room as soon as the door shuts behind Giovanni, and wonders how paranoid he’ll sound if he asks him to block it with something.</p><p>Probably very.</p><p>He stretches out, stiff from the car, and makes himself sit back up as his father walks past.</p><p>“What time will we get to Ilex tomorrow?”</p><p>“We should get to Azalea around noon, and then I assume there’s somewhere specific in the forest you need to go?”</p><p>“There’s a shrine.” He’ll be very happy to never have to see it again after this. “I don’t think it’s a very long walk in.”</p><p>Giovanni nods, and the knots in Silver’s stomach return.</p>
<hr/><p>Silver takes his time getting up the next morning.</p><p>Or as much as he can with checkout being frustratingly early, but it’s a tossup whether or not he’ll be back to sleeping in trees after this, so it’s hard to make himself get out of bed. Or out of the shower.</p><p>He pulls his old clothes back on.</p><p>He doesn’t know what will happen, but if he goes back to his time to Crys tearing her hair out over him vanishing then the less he has to explain the better.</p><p>If Giovanni thinks there’s something strange about his decision he doesn’t say anything.</p><p>They eat at a restaurant in the hotel, and Silver clears his plate because he knows not to waste food, but it feels like flavorless mush.</p><p>It still isn’t tense when they get in the car, but Silver sits rigidly in his seat with his arms crossed over his stomach the whole time, staring out the window and mentally repeating what he’d worked out to tell Giovanni about what’s coming.</p><p>They leave the car at the Pokemon Center in Azalea, and Giovanni lets Silver take the lead on the way to the shrine.</p><p>He doesn’t bring up Silver’s promise of information, which Silver appreciates because he can’t think of a time he’s promised someone information and not been badgered over it.</p><p>But, when he can see the outline of the shrine through the trees, he makes himself stop.</p><p>“Something wrong?” Giovanni asks, stopping next to him, and Silver takes a deep breath.</p><p>“There’s a base under Mount Mortar. There’s a main entrance that connects to the road somewhere, but I don’t know where. Any of your pokemon should be able to dig down to it even without that though, and there are air vents all over the mountain. They’re not that hard to find if you know they’re there.” Out the corner of his eye, he can see a growing look of horror on Giovanni’s face, and Silver supposes there really is no good way he’d have this information, but he makes himself keep going. “I probably don’t need to tell you not to let Pryce know that you know about this. And I… I guess you’ll know when it’s time to go there.”</p><p>He’s making a big gamble here. But he doesn’t have any other ideas. He’s not leaving the other kids to rot, and the base is in a bunch of caves, in theory, Giovanni has the advantage.</p><p>A hand settles on his shoulder, and he keeps his gaze on the ground.</p><p>He tenses up when Giovanni pulls him into a hug, and there’s a knot in his throat as he clings to him, trying not to think about the last time he’d had his face buried in his father’s shoulder.</p><p>“Thank you,” Giovanni murmurs into his hair. “We’ll fix things, I promise.”</p><p>Silver nods and makes himself step back. Giovanni’s hands linger on his shoulders, and the worry in his expression hurts.</p><p>“I’ll be fine,” Silver manages, reaching up to grab the hand on his shoulder.</p><p>Warm fingers squeeze his as Giovanni nods, and he lets Silver keep a hold of him as they turn towards the shrine.</p><p>Silver has no fond memories of the clearing or its associated deity, so he’d been expecting to have to spend the rest of the day hunting through the trees for Celebi, but the pokemon is sitting on the shrine, studying them with wide eyes.</p><p>“Thank you. For your help, and everything else,” Silver says, finally releasing his hand.</p><p>“Of course.”</p><p>Silver takes a deep breath, and steps towards the shrine.</p><p>“Can you take me back now? Please?”</p><p>The pokemon tilts its head, its gaze drifting towards Giovanni for a brief few seconds, before it floats off the shrine, and down to his level, holding out a hand (paw?).</p><p>Silver lets out a shaky exhale, and takes the offered hand, cautious of how small it is, and the minute he makes contact, the world turns white.</p>
<hr/><p>He’s sitting at his desk in his room, a textbook open in front of him, along with a notebook as he scribbles down notes for the three page paper on mega evolution that Giovanni wants by the weekend. He needs to get at least the notes and outline done by tonight because Yellow found something in the forest that she wants to show him tomorrow, and…</p><p>No wait, that’s wrong.</p><p>Silver jerks back from the desk, sending his chair rolling back into the foot of his bed.</p><p>Except they’re not “his”.</p><p>Except they are. This is his room, it always has been.</p><p>Two conflicting sets of memories, one slightly vaguer than the other, fill his mind, and slowly he sinks onto the bed, arms crossed over his stomach as he tries to slow his breathing down.</p><p>He’d been in Ilex, with Giovanni, and Celebi.</p><p>Had it worked?</p><p>It must have.</p><p>He presses his hand to his mouth as his eyes start to well with tears.</p><p>He wants to tell himself it’s too early to be celebrating, and that’s technically true, but still; he’s home, he can deal with the details of it all later.</p><p>He stays on the bed for a few minutes, taking stock of his room. It’s bigger than the guestroom he’d been staying in, and the window overlooks the backyard. He knows without really thinking about it that the glass is bulletproof, but he’s not sure who told him. Maybe Surge.</p><p>The casualness with which the man’s name pops into his head both is and isn’t surprising, vague memories of the rest of the Kanto league filling his mind, and after a few seconds, he makes himself get up and leave his room.</p><p>Again, he knows without thinking about it that Giovanni’s home by now; probably in the living room reading until it’s time to start dinner.</p><p>Silver heads down the stairs, pausing when he passes a cluster of photos.</p><p>He supposes that proves more than anything that it had in fact worked.</p><p>Giovanni’s in the living room like he’d expected, his attention locked on a book in his hands, and Silver pauses in the doorway, just staring at him.</p><p>He looks more like he had on the airship, but still different. Healthier might be the right word, but Silver isn’t sure.</p><p>The sleeves of his shirt are rolled up, revealing an old burn scar on his right arm that hadn’t been there before (except, half of his mind insists, it’s always been there), and the sight of it is what snaps Silver out of his daze.</p><p>“Dad?”</p><p>Giovanni looks up from the book, and Silver can see the minute he realizes something is off, worry clouding his expression.</p><p>“Is something wrong, Silver?”</p><p>“It worked.” His voice breaks, and he leans against the doorway. “It worked,” he repeats, not sure he’s making sense.</p><p>But something seems to click, because Giovanni walks over, slipping his arms around Silver right when a sob escapes his lips, and he leans into him, sniffling quietly.</p><p>“It did. It’s all over.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Silver manages to get out as he clings to him.</p><p>The hug feels different than in Ilex; firmer, and more like he’s actually used to holding him. It’s probably also helped by the fact that Silver doesn’t immediately go rigid in his arms; his body seems more relaxed, years of conditioning to flinch away from contact and supposed affection gone.</p><p>Finally, Silver makes himself step back, and Giovanni’s hands linger on his shoulders, not letting him get more than a step away.</p><p>“Are you alright?”</p><p>“Yeah.” He takes a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m good.”</p><p>He’s home.</p><p>It worked.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is so much longer than I meant...<br/>Does the premise of this fic undermine the whole point of GSC? Debatably yes. But who cares?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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